


I Think You Dance Swimmingly

by meowy_times



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: A little, Alternate Universe - Swimming, Alternate Universe - Water Polo, Dancing, Fluff, I can’t write, Kissing, M/M, Might be Out of Character, Minor Relationships, Summer Camp, Swimming Pools, Tags Are Fun, Yamaguchi is clueless, characterization is hard, i think, ill update tags but this is it for now, kenma is too, kuroo is a helpful friend, or he’s a gossip, the captain crew, tsukishima is a water polo player, tsukki is a NERD, yaku is a lifeguard, yamaguchi has a tiny crush on yachi, yamaguchi is a swimmer, yamaguchi is basically me
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-01
Updated: 2020-07-29
Packaged: 2021-03-05 05:54:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 14,977
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25009543
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/meowy_times/pseuds/meowy_times
Summary: Tsukishima catches Yamaguchi dancing in the gym. All he wanted to do was escape his team’s poker night, not catch feelings.And damn did he catch a lot of feelings.This is kinda self-indulgent, I play both sports so that makes it kind of easier to write? no one asked for this but whatever
Relationships: Akaashi Keiji/Bokuto Koutarou, Haiba Lev & Yaku Morisuke, Haiba Lev/Yaku Morisuke, Hinata Shouyou/Kageyama Tobio, Iwaizumi Hajime/Oikawa Tooru, Kozume Kenma/Kuroo Tetsurou, Minor or Background Relationship(s), Sawamura Daichi/Sugawara Koushi, Tendou Satori/Ushijima Wakatoshi, Tsukishima Kei & Yamaguchi Tadashi, Tsukishima Kei/Yamaguchi Tadashi, Yachi Hitoka & Yamaguchi Tadashi
Comments: 25
Kudos: 188





	1. Scrabbling for Love

**Author's Note:**

> lmao what’s that chapter title...so format might still be odd
> 
> anyway there’s like... water polo words? uhh if you don’t know what they are i’ll clarify here (bc my friend didn’t know so)
> 
> egg beat: like treading, alternating breast stroke kicks  
> dry land: regular exercise... like on land

Summer nights were way too warm and muggy. Tsukishima had just narrowly escaped a poker game with his team, claiming to go on a walk. Tsukishima sort of hated the two-week water polo camp. He understood the need to stay sharp, but hated the fact that they used the outdoor pool. 

The facility they were at had two pools, and the indoor one wasn’t being used to Tsukishima’s knowledge. He supposed there were problems with the indoor pool. It was smaller and shallower, which could be a problem, seeing as there were so many tall players. There was no way Tsukishima wanted to egg beat in six foot water when he was 6’2”. He _could_ , he just didn’t want to. Still, the outside pool left things to be desired. It was gross and the sun was too bright and there were leaves, and sometimes bugs, basically it was _nasty_. 

So instead of joining poker night (Tsukishima wondered if Daichi was actually going to let them bet), he wandered the grounds aimlessly. Passing the gym, he just noticed the bright lights coming out the window. Was the gym being used? It was too late for dry land, wasn’t it?

He checked the door. Unlocked. Almost immediately, music drifted out. It was some happy upbeat American song Tsukishima couldn’t understand. 

Closing the door behind him, he turned his attention to the person in the room. A boy was dancing quickly to match the song, throwing jumps and spins in. He was smiling. As the song changed to a slower, sadder one, the boy changed his movements. There were more slow jumps and big spins, more lingering moments. 

“Wow…” he heard himself say. The boy whipped his head around at the sound. Did he have super hearing? 

“Who are you?” he asked, still breathless. It was sorta hot. Who was Tsukishima kidding, he’d watched the guy dance for five minutes, it was definitely hot. Now that he had stopped moving, Tsukishima had a better look at him. He had little freckles, covered by red blush. His hair was olive brown and cut just below his ears. One piece of hair stuck up rebelliously. 

“U-uh Tsukishima,” this guy had caught him off guard. “Do you dance?”

“Ah no, just for fun really… I’m not that good.” A sudden change of music to some cheesy sounding love song made him blush. “I’m Yamaguchi Tadashi… uh on the swim team.”

“The swim team’s here?”

“Yeah, part of us anyway… we use the indoor pool.” 

Oh. So that was why the water polo team couldn’t go inside. 

Yamaguchi grinned and turned his back to Tsukishima. With the cheesy love song still going, Yamaguchi started to dance again, sillier this time. He looked back at Tsukishima. That just made Tsukishima want to dance _with_ him.

“Y’know I’d usually be super embarrassed, dancing like this in front of someone, but it feels okay with you Tsukki.” Yamaguchi laughed at his new nickname and it just made Tsukishima fall for him even more. Yamaguchi jumped and spun again, his smile could bring literal angels. 

“Last time I checked, swimming didn’t include dancing in the gym.” 

“Last time I checked, water polo didn’t either,” Yamaguchi said, grabbing his hand. Tsukishima bit back a smile as Yamaguchi tried to spin him around. 

  
  


They danced together for who knows how long. Tsukishima learned that Yamaguchi was on a two-week long training for “swimmers that showed potential”. Tsukishima learned that Yamaguchi was running from playing Truth or Dare because his team was trying to find out who his crush was, after he said something on accident. Yamaguchi learned that Tsukishima was hiding from his team’s poker night… and that most of his team was annoying. 

“Water polo’s kinda violent, don’t you think?” Yamaguchi smirked as Tsukishima tried to twirl him again. He’d failed at least four times. This time was successful. Yamaguchi spun around, ending his spin right up to Tsukishima. He looked up and blushed… or maybe it was the lights, they were too close. 

“No, I don’t really think so.” 

  
  


When Tsukishima went back to the room he was staying in, he wasn’t surprised to see his teammates still playing. The walk back from the gym had been cooler and shorter than he’d expected. His teammates had taken over Tsukishima and Kageyama’s room (not that he had a choice in roommates). Bokuto was sprawled out on his bed with Daichi next to him. 

“Hey hey hey! Tsukki! Where’ve you been? It’s nine-thirty.” Right… these people called him Tsukki too. And it was annoying. It bothered him, unlike when Yamaguchi had done it. 

“It’s past curfew,” Daichi said. 

“Then why’re you still in my room?”

“You don’t get to ask that if you weren’t even in a room.” Tsukishima didn’t say that he _was_ technically in a room before. Still, dancing and talking was a lot of work. He was tired, he wanted everyone out.

*****

Yamaguchi couldn’t really believe it. He’d just dragged a _stranger_ into his embarrassing excuse for a dance. That was bad. Opening the door to his room, he saw his friends, sitting and laying, around a small table. The team’s curfew was ten, so Yamaguchi wasn’t too surprised. But they were playing Scrabble, not Truth or Dare. It probably had something to do with the fact that everyone had secrets… or they had gotten bored. They opted out for their own “safety”. He realized he could’ve done the same thing. Stupid.

“Yo Yamaguchi, wanna join the game?” Hinata motioned toward the board. 

“Hm, it might be hard to join in now, since we’re keeping track of points… I know! You can join my team!” Suga gave his charming, trademark smile. Yamaguchi nodded, hoping the cooler air outside had stopped his blush from earlier. 

“He should be on my team then!”

“That’s not really fair, is it” 

“We want Yamaguchi to join, right?” Sugawara stopped the complaining quickly. 

Yamaguchi joined, looking at Suga’s letters. L, O, I, P, E, F, and a blank tile.

“We’ll add I-P-E to this R to make RIPE,” Suga said. It didn’t really look like Sugawara needed help. Yamaguchi checked the score paper. They were second, behind Yachi who knew lots of big words. 

“Hey, hey, what should we do now? Trade a tile?” Yamaguchi automatically shook his head and turned back to the board. They had gone full circle while he was distracted. 

“Uh, well there’s an empty E over here…” Yamaguchi pointed to the word Ashi had put down earlier. 

“Oh right! Then let’s spell ‘love’, L-O- the blank space is a V- then the E!”

Oh.

Out of all the words Sugawara could’ve thought of for L-O-blank space-E. Blank space could’ve been so many things. Lobe, Lode, Lore. Yamaguchi couldn’t blame him though. Out of all the choices, “love” was the most obvious but the point value wouldn’t change with a blank space. 

So why did it make him so uncomfortable that he knew the letters meant to spell “LOVE”?

Yamaguchi sighed. Everyone had left maybe an hour ago. Yamaguchi checked the time. 12:29 am. Two and a half hours. Hinata was sleeping soundly in the other bed, snoring lightly. 

Yamaguchi hadn't even known that the water polo team would be here. If anything the thought that Kenma would tell him. Kenma. Yamaguchi found his phone on the bedside table and went to Kenma’s text messages. Was this a good idea? Probably not. 

12:31: Why didn’t you tell me the water polo team was here?

12:32: _What?_

12:32: _You never asked and Kuro didn’t say where his camp was_

An immediate response. Kenma was probably up gaming, since it was summer. He was Kuroo’s boyfriend and Kuroo was a water polo captain. Kuroo had repeated tried to get Kenma into the sport but the pudding-headed Kenma just wanted to play video games. Eventually, Kenma joined the swim team as a “compromise”. After that, Kuroo jokingly called him a traitor (it was a joke, Kuroo loved Kenma regardless). 

Kenma didn’t try hard enough to be “a swimmer with a lot of potential” so he was at home. 

12:33: _Why? What happened?_

12:33: Nothing.

12:33: Just wondering. 

12:34: _Did you meet one of them?_

12:34: Yeah.

12:35: _Name?_

12:36: Tsukishima? He’s tall, blond, glasses?

12:36: _Is that a question?_

12:37: _I know hm. He’s friends with Kuro. What happened?_

Yamaguchi was getting too tired to continue the conversation. He had a lot more training to do tomorrow. He actually felt himself falling asleep. Oh well, he’d deal with it later. 


	2. Couples that Gossip Together Stay Together

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kuroo messes with people sort of. Introductions are made.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hello chapter 2
> 
> so idk there’s not rlly any new words  
> scrimmage: like a game, practice  
> also if it wasn’t clear, you can’t hold the ball with two hands touch the bottom of the pool (unless you’re the goalie i think)

Mornings were the enemy. Tsukishima was _not_ friends with the sun, and he hated how early it rose. Today was day three of this two week hell. Waking up at six to be at the pool by seven should be illegal in summer. 

“Oi, get up.” Oh, did he forget to mention that Kageyama was a morning person? 

Well he was, and that just made Tsukishima hate the raven-haired asshole more. Tsukishima groaned and moved to the bathroom to change. 

Breakfast was served in the same cafeteria as the last two days. Lumpy oatmeal and yogurt was apparently the best they could do. Today though, Tsukishima noticed something new. A group of ten or so people were walking in, laughing. One of them, with bright orange hair, was zipping around excitedly. Did he have too much coffee? It was way too early to be _that_ energetic. 

“Oikawa-san! Can you get me some yogurt?”

“Of course, Yama-chan! Anything for you!” Tsukishima watched as one of the swimmers pretend-bowed, before skipping off toward the food stands.

The rest of the group sat at the largest table. Where all of the water polo team was spread out among small tables, the swim team sat together like a giant flock of birds. Had they always been there? He could only see the back of Yamaguchi’s head as he ate. Tsukishima reasoned that the swim training had started at the same time as the water polo training. Meaning that yes, they were always there and Tsukishima hadn’t noticed. Man, he prided himself in being observant. 

“Hey. Why is Kenma texting me about you and Yamaguchi?” Kuroo gave him a funny look. 

“Huh? What’d you mean” How did Kuroo know? _How did Kenma know?_

It was break, after a three hour practice. Tsukishima watched as Bokuto guzzled Gatorade and sports drinks. Ennoshita and Daichi looked at him disapprovingly. 

“He said something about something with Yamaguchi? … hello? Tsukkiii!” 

That nickname again. Tsukishima tried to decipher what Kuroo meant by “something about something with Yamaguchi”. He figured it meant dancing. Yamaguchi probably wouldn’t want Kuroo to know that he danced for fun. 

“It was nothing.” he muttered, leaving Kuroo to grab his own sports drink. 

“How do you even know Yamaguchi?” Kuroo followed him, cheering Bokuto on his quest to be super powered by drinks. 

“How do _you_?” Tsukishima knew that he was getting defensive, but he also knew that no one else would see it that way. 

“I don’t really,” Kuroo shrugged, “he’s a swim friend of Kenma’s, super good at Smash Bros apparently.”

“Everyone to the gym! Get your shorts, we’re doing dry land.”

There were a few groans and Tsukishima wasn’t sure if he was relieved or not. On one hand, doing push-ups and sit-ups would make Kuroo shut up, on the other hand, they were doing push-ups and sit-ups. 

As they walked to the gym, they passed the indoor pool.The entire wall was like a giant window and tsukishima could see someone with silver hair diving off the block. 

“Aw mannn! What can’t we use that pool?” Bokuto complained. 

“The pool is too shallow for us. We would touch the bottom and break the rules,” Ushijima said. 

The indoor pool ranged from 4 to 6 feet, and with most of the players being over 6 foot, it would be hard to have a scrimmage on the shallow side. 

“I wouldn’t! I wouldn’t!” Lev yelled. Tsukishima rolled his eyes. Lev was the most likely to break the rules. He was the tallest and newest player, meaning that he still sometimes touched the ball with two hands and stood on the bottom of the pool. All the tall players meant that they opted for 10 to 12 foot pools.

“You would,” Ushijima deadpanned. 

  
  


Eventually lunch rolled around. They did better with lunch and dinner than they did with with breakfast. There was actual rice and actual meat and actual vegetables. Kuroo hadn’t forgotten. He was back to annoying Tsukishima. 

“So Kenma said Yamaguchi texted him around 12:30? What did you do to make him stay up?” 

Why was Yamaguchi up at 12:30? Texting Kenma? Wasn’t he tired from dancing? 

“So… what’d you do?”

“Why do you and Kenma gossip so much?” 

“You know what they say, couples that gossip together stay together! And Kenma’s just worried for a friend, it just so happens to involve you too.”

“People do _not_ say that. And why do you even care?” Tsukishima took a bite of his bread. 

“Fine, Kuroo pouted, “then I’ll just ask Yamaguchi himself.”

*****

Yamaguchi sort of liked mornings. Well. It was more like he liked swimming and that morning practice was part of the drill. He was always the first one in the pool. Apparently that paid off too because last year he got the “Most Improved Swimmer” award. The main points of his coach’s talk were: 

-he was quiet and shy

-he was hardworking

-he was always the first person in the pool

That had been embarrassing to say the least. Especially since his friends knew exactly who the coach was talking about. Yamaguchi wasn’t that shy, was he? 

Anyway, today’s training was going well. Suga figured out his relay dive. Yamaguchi barely saw him as he dived over Yamaguchi’s head. Kiyoko was doing well too. She wasn’t necessarily here for “potential”, but for extra training to help her injured legs. That wasn’t to say she didn’t have potential. During break, Oikawa tried to hit on her again but she ignored him, per usual. 

Now it was lunch and Kuroo was skipping over to their table. Since when did Kuroo skip? 

“Hey swim nerds! Mind if I borrow one of your men?” 

“Don’t call us nerds!” was all Yamaguchi could hear as Kuroo dragged him outside. 

“So what happened between you and Tsukki?” What? Yamaguchi was confused. As if he heard, Tsukishima seemed to suddenly materialize behind Kuroo. 

“Don’t call me that.” The tall blond pushed his glasses up with one hand while pushing Kuroo’s head down with the other. 

“Heyyy… Tsukki, is that any way to treat your captain-senpai?” Tsukishima just clicked his tongue and gave Kuroo a death stare before going back inside. 

“Does… does he not like to be called that?” 

“Tsukki? Oh no, not by us at least.” Oh. Then Yamaguchi should just call him Tsukishima then. 

“Anyway, what happened between you guys… I’m not usually one to butt in on people’s situations but…” Why did Kuroo know anything happened again? Nothing happened really. He must’ve got it from Kenma, wow information spread fast. 

Yamaguchi sighed. He didn’t know Kuroo well, but there was no point in hiding it. Kuroo would bug him until he got an answer and Yamaguchi didn’t want Kenma to worry. Kenma was probably worrying because of the text messages. They were a bad idea. 

“Uh nothing…” Kuroo didn’t look convinced, “We were dancing. In the gym.” Yamaguchi admitted, shrugging his shoulders. 

Kuroo backed up and let out a laugh. “You’ve got to be kidding me! Tsukishima knows how to dance? He should teach me sometime… why the hell was he dancing with you?” 

That was surprising. One, Kuroo looked like he would know how to dance, but didn’t. Two, he was laughing at Tsukishima, not Yamaguchi. Or maybe he was laughing at Yamaguchi. 

“Say… say why’re you so red Yamaguchi?” Kuroo had calmed down from laughing. Yamaguchi felt his face. It was warm. 

“Oh wait,” Kuroo’s eyes lit with recognition, he smiled, “Yamaguchi it was nice talking to you, got more to tease Tsukki about, thanks!” Kuroo moved back inside, leaving Yamaguchi more confused than before. 

During afternoon practice, their coach explained that _if_ they did especially well and were well behaved, he’d arrange something with the water polo coach called Fun Friday. Basically a full day of playing games if they were good for the next few days. Yamaguchi didn’t know how he felt, being treated like a five year-old or a puppy being trained for a big reward. It was a surprise to everyone, some of them hadn’t even realized the water polo team was there. Watching Hinata and Nishinoya whoop and zoom around made Yamaguchi realize that yes, they were like five year-olds.

“Should we play Scrabble again?” Yachi asked. The small blonde smiled and Yamaguchi felt his stomach flutter. 

“Nahhh let’s play something else, I don’t wanna play Scrabble,” Noya mumbled. His hair was black, with a single tuft of blond in the front. Usually it would be spiked up with gel, but the swimmers never really saw it that way. They saw it the way it was now, laying flat on his head after a shower and practice. 

“That’s ‘cause you don’t know enough words to be good.” Tanaka laughed. 

“Hey!” Noya glared at Tanaka, “You’re not much better.”

“How about something else then?” Yachi intervened quickly. 

All ten of the camp participants were sitting outside in a circle. Sugawara, Akaashi, Kiyoko, Oikawa (the ‘leaders’ for now), Asahi, Nishinoya, Hinata,Yachi, then Yamaguchi himself. Yachi had roped him into game night, promising no more Truth or Dare.

“How ‘bout this?” Suga pulled out a pack of cards, “Let’s play B.S.”

Suga was very good at B.S. His cheeky face couldn’t be trusted and would trick you into calling incorrectly. Tanaka and Noya both prided themselves in being good at B.S. but they had terrible poker faces. Akaashi and Kiyoko on the other hand, were nearly impossible to read. 

“Hey, hey, hey! You’re the swim team, right? What’re you playing?” Someone came running up towards them. He had weirdly black and white streaked hair and bright eyes. “I’m Bokuto, captain of the boys water polo team. We might do a thing together, so I thought we should introduce ourselves.” 

Kuroo came from behind and pushed Bokuto to the side. His usual rooster-like bed head was a little better after a shower. “Don’t hog the spotlight Bokuto,” he joked, “I’m Kuroo, nice to meet you.” He grinned and stuck out his hand. Oikawa stood up and narrowed his eyes. He took the hand and shook it. 

“Hello swimmer-stealer, I’m Oikawa.”

They decided it best to go through the water polo players before the swimmers. The remaining seven players introduced themselves. 

“I’m Sawamura Daichi.” One of the players said. He smiled and Yamaguchi noticed a hole in his teeth. He was on the shorter side of the team, Yamaguchi was taller than him too. Were all water polo players tall? 

Ennoshita seemed nice, more withdrawn than the others. Lev had silver hair, like Suga, and was the tallest out of them all. Ushijima looked intimidating as he said “I am Ushijima Wakatoshi,” carrying the same stone faced expression as Kageyama. Though Kageyama seemed a lot more awkward in his introduction. Iwaizumi was polite, if not a little prickly. He already had Oikawa around his finger, Yamaguchi could tell. 

That just left Tsukishima. He pushed up his glasses, giving them a shit-eating smirk. What was up with that?

“Tsukishima Kei. Goalie.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank u for reading! feedback is appreciated 
> 
> typing out my writing takes awhile


	3. The Bullshitter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Card games and a weird day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> wow
> 
> words  
> 25: one lap, so do the math (50 is 2, 75 is 3...)  
> IM: individual medley (fly,back,breast,free)  
> pyramid: up and down set... uh like 25,50,75,50,25
> 
> also tsukki may be cool but he’s not actually... like he’s 15, he laughed at “shitty boys”

Tsukishima wasn’t really one for introductions. Seeing as the others hadn’t said their positions as field players, he found it necessary to clarify that they _did_ have a goalie. 

Other than Yamaguchi, Tsukishima didn’t know the swimmers. He didn’t really care either. 

Still, he was forced to learn that the hyperactive tangerine from this morning was named Hinata. He decided that he would not be friends with this “sunshine” (not that he planned to make any new friends anyway). The other short one was named Nishinoya and the bald guy, Tanaka, was his partner in crime. Sugawara had silver hair, Azumane Asahi was big but shy. And Akaashi looked hot… to Bokuto anyway. Kiyoko was the taller girl and Yachi was the shorter one. 

Yamaguchi liked backstroke. Every one of them had said their “specialties” but Tsukishima didn’t care if Hinata liked freestyle because it made him feel like ‘zoooom’ or if Sugawara usually did breaststroke. 

The night didn’t _really_ go to waste. Suga found a second deck of cards because nineteen people were too many people to play cards with. Tsukishima was surprised to see that Yamaguchi was a good liar. He had expected Hinata to be bad though. 

After winning three rounds of Bullshit in a row, other people wanted to change the game. Tsukishima was actually having a decent time. He liked seeing when Tanaka’s or Noya’s faces would fall after losing. Sore losers. Even if winning three of five rounds gave him the nickname “The Bullshitter”. Hopefully it wouldn’t stick. They changed the game to Hearts and Big Two, switching when someone got too much of an upper hand. 

“What game _aren’t_ you good at?” Noya groaned. It wasn’t like Tsukishima was winning every game. Kuroo, Akaashi, and the others winning rounds too. Oikawa was surprisingly good at Hearts and shooting the moon. 

“I know! Egyptian War.” Tanaka said “war” darkly before laughing and explaining the game to everyone.

Tanaka was right. Tsukishima was not good at Egyptian War. His reflexes were good but he was _not_ going to hit the table that hard. Oikawa hit the table especially hard. He could probably break it.

“Everyone inside now!” A man, Tsukishima assumed he was the swim coach, yelled. Tsukishima checked his watch. Right, they had a curfew. 

*****

“That was so much fun!” Hinata grinned as he skipped into their room. “Kageyama was cool looking right? He’s all mysterious and grouchy. He’s sorta bad at card games though… did you see? Oikawa was looking at him funny the whole time. Yamaguchi just nodded, too tired to talk. He slumped into bed and fell asleep. 

Thursday was pretty normal. So far. Yamaguchi woke up before Hinata and brushed his teeth. He changed into a swimsuit and threw on shorts and a sweatshirt over it. Mornings were cold. 6:15 am. If Yamaguchi let Hinata sleep any longer then there was a chance of missing breakfast. Hinata took forever to get ready.

They got to the cafeteria at 6:45. Most everyone else was already there and finished eating. 

“Yama-chan! We’re heading out.” Oikawa informed him. Yamaguchi sighed and tried his best to make it. He grabbed two yogurts and Hinata, who had found a coffee machine. Hinata did not need coffee. 

They weren’t really late but the coach gave them a look. That was because their coach lived by “on time is late, 15 minutes early is on time”. Well he didn’t literally, he just liked punctuality. Yamaguchi got in the end lane first anyway. 

After warmups, Oikawa hung over the lane line.

“You’re not supposed to do that…” Yamaguchi warned. 

Oikawa just rolled his eyes. “I know Yama-chan, the coach can’t see me though. But you guys can’t be late again ‘cause I wanna have Fun Friday with Iwa-chan.” Iwa-chan? That must be Iwaizumi. Yamaguchi didn’t have time to question Oikawa’s inflection because the coach blew the whistle, setting them off on a breaststroke set. Ah today would be hell. Breaststroke was Yamaguchi’s worst stroke. 

After many more 50s, 100s, and 8 IMs, it was finally lunch. Yamaguchi watched as Noya shoveled rice into his mouth. Hinata was doing the same. He silently wondered how they could eat so much and have none of it go towards growing their height.

There was a tap on his shoulder, making him jump. “Ah sorry,” Tsukishima looked at him, “Meet me by the gym tonight.” Then he left. What? Yamaguchi watched as Tsukishima headed toward a table with Sawamura, Ennoshita, and… Suga? 

Yamaguchi sat next to Hinata, who was arguing with Kageyama about something. 

“Water polo has more action!”

“Swimming is safer!”

“You could get a concussion!”

“So could you! You have an actual ball that could go ‘wham!’ in your face!” Oh so it was about which sport was better.

“My, my… Tobio-chan. Concussion is such a big word! Good job.” Oikawa came up behind Kageyama and draped his arms over Kageyama’s shoulders. 

“Do you know him Oikawa-san?”

“Know him?” Oikawa laughed, “He was an _amazing_ and _talented_ swimmer, and then he wasted it playing water polo! I’m not even sure why he’s in a team sport.” Oikawa could’ve fooled any stranger with his voice. The false sweetness had melted away by the end, but the beginning sounded like a genuine compliment. Maybe it was a genuine compliment. Kageyama just scoffed and shrugged Oikawa off. 

Afternoon practice consisted of ‘hell’s pyramid’. At least that’s what it felt like. A 25 free, 50 breast, 75 back, 100 fly, 150 and 175 drills, then a 200 IM to top it all off, and back down. Yamaguchi was faring better than some though. Suga didn’t have a lot of stamina and Hinata kept falling behind in butterfly. Akaashi wasn’t behind in anything though. Yamaguchi’s own weakness was breaststroke. 

“Hey Tsukishima.” Yamaguchi had met by the gym, just like he was asked to. 

“Don’t call me that.”

“...It’s your name.”

“Tsukki is fine,” Tsukishima muttered, opening the gym door. 

“Oh…” Yamaguchi thought Tsukishima didn’t like his nickname. “Sorry Tsukki.”

Yeah. Thursday was not normal.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i hope i never do hell’s pyramid, why did i even make that up
> 
> also card games are fun i wish there were ppl to play with but we in quarantine 
> 
> thanks for reading!


	4. Clouds are Pretty Nice

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tsukki does something not really required and Yamaguchi tries to learn things.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i don’t ever know what to put as chapter titles and summaries but i still do them anyway  
> also i wish there was a way to ident without have a sort of space in between it but idk how to do it here

Tsukishima only did as Sugawara told him to. Well, Sugawara didn’t tell him to do anything. More like: in a conversation with Daichi, Suga said “if you need help with backstroke, don’t ask me, ask Yamaguchi”. Why they were even talking about backstroke, Tsukishima didn’t know. It wasn’t like backstroke was used all that much in water polo. Even less for a goalie. 

So… Now he was at the gym with no plan. Yamaguchi was sitting next to him, rambling about some show he watched recently. Tsukishima didn’t know how they got to that topic. At first Yamaguchi was asking him about his favorite foods and colors. Eventually they got to favorite shows. Tsukishima said that he watched nature documentaries. Yamaguchi took all that as a ticket to get here. Not that he minded. 

“Why do you like backstroke?”

“Huh? What Tsukki?”

This was why he was here right? To get help with swimming. “Why backstroke?” 

“Oh, because the clouds are pretty–I like making shapes in the sky.” That wasn’t the answer Tsukishima was expecting. He expected something like “because I’m good at it”, “because I’m fast”, “because it’s easy”, not “because the sky is pretty”. 

“Aren’t you inside now?” He asked. He knew his voice was flat and uninviting. 

“Well, the ceiling lights are pretty nice looking too,” Yamaguchi snickered. “And usually we’re outside.” 

Tsukishima snorted. Or maybe he laughed. “Shut up Yamaguchi.”

“Sorry Tsukki…” Tsukishima was probably being too harsh. Yamaguchi just cracked a joke. He checked his watch and groaned internally. Six a.m. was too early to wake up and 9:30 was too early to go back to rooms. He stood up and started to make his way to the door. Yamaguchi followed him. 

“Isn’t your curfew at 10?”

“Yeah, but the gym is boring without Tsukki!” Huh. 

Yamaguchi broke off from Tsukishima at some point in the hall, after Noya dragged him away. Tsukishima unlocked his door, only to see the back of Oikawa’s head. Why was Oikawa here? 

“So you’re telling me… that Chibi-chan should play water polo, just for the sake of his reflexes? Jeez you’re just like Ushiwaka sometimes Tobio-chan.” 

Kageyama nodded. “We played catch during break. He was able to catch the ball.” 

“With one hand?” Kageyama shook his head. “Tobio-chan, anyone can catch a ball, it’s not special.” 

They hadn’t noticed Tsukishima in the room yet. He made himself known by clearing his throat. Oikawa threw him a glance before going back to Kageyama. “Oh but he had to jump a lot, didn’t he? Since you’re so tall, and you throw the ball straight over heads.” Kageyama shrugged at this accusation. “You know water isn’t the same as land right? He can’t jump on water. And his defense would be weak.” 

“You know water polo rules?”

“Of course!” Oikawa rolled his eyes, “Iwa-chan taught me when we were little, oh, but we never talk about each other because Iwa-chan made me promise.” 

Tsukishima snorted. Not like Iwaizumi would have anything to say about this guy anyway. He didn’t know what was up between Oikawa and Kageyama or Oikawa and Iwaizumi. He sat on his bed and listened to his music, while watching Oikawa gasp at something Kageyama said. Tsukishima couldn’t hear them. 

The next morning, Tsukishima didn’t see Yamaguchi. It was Fun Friday, unless someone messed up their behavior right? Tsukishima didn’t care about that but Bokuto did. He made sure everyone was on their best behavior, even Tsukishima (even if his best behavior was still just as cold and uncaring as his regular behavior). The swimmers better not have messed up because he wanted a Fun Friday as a reward for putting up with Daichi’s and Bokuto’s and Kuroo’s comments to “be nicer” and “try harder”. Yeah, Tsukishima couldn’t care less.

  
  


*****

Yamaguchi was probably annoying to Tsukishima. That’s what he decided after last night. After all, they weren’t even friends and Yamaguchi was just “the weird guy who dances in the gym” and the one who talks too much. Tsukishima had hardly said anything all night too. He just sat there, maybe listening, as Yamaguchi talked about things. His expression hadn’t changed at all either, he had a straight face the whole time and Yamaguchi couldn’t tell anything by his voice. 

Yamaguchi did learn though, that Tsukishima probably wasn’t all darkness and gloom. He liked strawberry shortcake and his favorite animal was “dinosaurs”. Yamaguchi supposed that dinosaurs counted as an animal, even if they were dead. 

At the end of the night, when Tsukishima’s curfew came, Tsukishima had told Yamaguchi to shut up. Yamaguchi wondered if he finally reached his limit of listening to Yamaguchi talk. But he let Yamaguchi trail him all the way down the hall until Noya told Yamaguchi to “come with me”. 

Apparently Noya had a plan to learn how to play water polo before tomorrow. Hinata, Tanaka, and Asahi were also into it. Though Asahi was probably dragged in by Noya. 

“We’re gonna impress all of them with our cool skills!” Hinata grinned. The five of them had spent the night looking up videos on how to play water polo and it still didn’t quite make sense to Yamaguchi. They still had morning practice, though their coach promised it would be easier than yesterday (Yamaguchi sure hoped so). Then the afternoon would be a big pool party of sorts, before the weekend. Tanaka said that they were tricked into thinking that the whole day would be fun. 

“Let’s find a ball and try it out.” Hinata dug through the shed by the pool. “It must be here somewhere, Kageyama said that they had balls, oh, here it is!” The bright yellow ball that Hinata pulled out looked a lot like a volleyball. It was pretty big too, for Hinata’s small hands. 

“Alright, let’s go!” Tanaka slid into the pool quickly. They were breaking the rules right now, they weren’t supposed to be at the pool yet, unsupervised. They were _supposed_ to be eating breakfast with the others, who were probably wondering where they were. If they got caught, Yamaguchi could say goodbye to easy practice and Fun Friday. Also maybe Sugawara’s and Oikawa’s friendship. Suga would be disappointed in him and Oikawa would be angry about not being able to hang out with Iwaizumi. 

Hinata jumped in with a splash. Asahi tried to shush him as he freaked out about not being able to touch the bottom. Eventually he figured out how to tread, though inefficiently because he kept bobbing up and down. 

“Man! Who makes a pool this deep?” Yamaguchi snickered at this comment and swam over to grab the ball. 

“Just another challenge!” Noya got to Hinata faster and swiped the ball away from him. “Hah, let’s try passing.” 

The goals weren’t set up so they couldn’t try shooting, even though Hinata really wanted to. It was hard to apply whatever they learned last night to right now. Hinata couldn’t figure out how to tread and Noya kept catching the ball wrong, and Asahi was plain scared of the ball. 

Yamaguchi got the hang of swimming with his head up eventually, when the gate to the pool started to move. Tsukishima was standing there, now watching as they messed around. He didn’t have glasses on. 

“What are you doing?”

“Oh hi Tsukki! We’re uh learning how to play water polo.” Tsukishima raised his eyebrows and looked over at the others. He wasn’t even squinting. He was looking at Hinata, who was struggling again, looking like it was his first time ever in a pool. 

“Get out.” Tsukishima slid himself into the pool and pushed off the wall. Immediately he was able to steal the ball from Tanaka and glare at everyone. Asahi was intimidated and got out quickly. Tanaka, Nishinoya, and Hinata were all grumbling about how their fun was ruined. Yamaguchi just got out and walked toward the building that held their own pool. 

“Stupid Tsukishima… Stupidshima… Stingyshima. Why can’t he just let us have our fun? I wanted to impress Bokuto-san or something.” Hinata muttered. 

“We can have our fun later… I’m sure Tsukki wasn’t being stingy,” Yamaguchi didn’t know if Tsukishima particularly liked him, but he still felt like he needed to defend him. Hinata looked at him, confused, before shrugging. 

Luckily they weren’t late for morning practice. Actually, they were early. Coach wasn’t there, but Oikawa and Sugawara were. Both of them were already swimming so neither questioned why Yamaguchi and the others were already wet. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i think i’m funny when i write these things but then i look at it again and think that i’m not, also if you haven’t noticed, i don’t actually know where this story is going, like so far it doesn’t have an ending 
> 
> clouds are nice tho, i like backstroke


	5. Fun Friday

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which the water polo team(aka me) tries their best to explain water polo to the swim team (aka you) because Hinata and Nishinoya really want to hit Tsukishima in the face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> lol i don’t think there’s really an explanation, also the game Colors is something i should explain 
> 
> Colors: so there’s an “it” who stands outside the pool, naming off colors of the rainbow (and black and white) and the ppl in the pool are all thinking of a color. when they hear their color they leave and try to get to the other side of the pool before “it” turns around and catches them 
> 
> oh and water polo positions, there’s 1-6 but it’s not too important here

Tsukishima didn’t understand why Yamaguchi found it necessary to learn water polo. It was sort of fun, sure, but Tsukishima only really joined because he wanted to be like his brother. And then his brother lied and let him down and now, it’s not so fun. 

Tsukishima was still the only one in the pool. He came early, to put in the goals for practice, but now he didn’t want to get out of the pool. He knew that he’d get weird looks later. Kuroo would come by and ask “Tsukkiii what’re you doing?” and Bokuto would say “Hey hey hey! You’re finally invested in getting better?” or something like that. So he got out, dragged out the goals and put them where they were supposed to be. Putting in goals was not a one person job. 

When Ennoshita and Ushijima came by, Tsukishima let Ennoshita play goalie, so he could shoot for once. Morning practice went well. They did drills and passing and went through positions. 

“One! Three. Six. Two!” Coach called out the separate positions and Tsukishima watched as they passed around. He waited for one of them to shoot, Bokuto always made wild shots and fakes. “Four!” Great. Lev’s position. He was definitely going to shoot. Position four was on his left side, further away from the goal, not ideal for Lev’s shooting ability. Lev caught the ball (a surprise in itself) and got in position to shoot. He was so obvious. 

“Alright!” Lev threw the ball over Tsukishima’s head and he caught it. Easy. 

“Lev! Aim for the corners!” Lev nodded and got the ball again. He shot too far to the left this time and hit the side of the goal. 

When lunch came around, Yamaguchi sat with him. He seemed a little awkward but Tsukishima ignored that. With Yamaguchi though, came Akaashi, and with Akaashi, came apparently Bokuto. 

“Oh yeah! We have a practice tournament this weekend Akaashi, wanna come see? It’s not official or anything, but maybe the whole swim team could come.”

“That would be nice Bokuto-san. I’ll talk to Sugawara and Oikawa about it.” Bokuto grinned at Akaashi’s response and continued chattering about some manga or show he wanted Akaashi to watch. Yamaguchi hadn’t said much, just eating his rice and meat. The three of them, Tsukishima, Yamaguchi, and Akaashi, sat in silence as Bokuto talked their ears off. 

As lunch finished, Tsukishima saw the coaches setting up outside. He wasn’t one to investigate though, so he stayed seated. 

“Hey, Fun Friday technically started as soon as lunch did, didn’t it?” Yamaguchi wondered.

“I guess.” Tsukishima said. 

After a short talk with the coach about what they were going to do that weekend, the team was let off to mess around. Tsukishima was dragged into a game of Colors and ended up being caught by Kuroo in the second round. What could he say? He wasn’t trying. 

“Red.” No splashes. “Blue.” One splash. “Green.” Many splashes. 

Tsukishima turned quickly. He didn’t have time to pick a target, but Yamaguchi was looking up at him mischievously. He was doing backstroke, with his head up.. Yamaguchi was the closest. Tsukishima dived in and Yamaguchi sped up. He was glad they were playing this game the long way, because otherwise Yamaguchi would already be safe. He grabbed Yamaguchi’s foot and Yamaguchi looked at him, shocked. Then he laughed, flipped to his stomach, and swam to the wall. 

Yamaguchi climbed out of the pool and turned around. He started listing off colors. “Orange.” Suga left. “Yellow.” Hinata and Noya. “Purple.” Kuroo and Akaashi pushed off. “Blue.” Tsukishima decided that he would go. He didn’t  _ actually  _ think of a new color before each round. He just picked one in the moment and left. 

Many rounds later, Tsukishima was “it” again. This time he caught Hinata by the arm. Hinata climbed and sat on the edge. “I wanna learn how to play water polo now,” he pouted. Surprise ran through the teams. 

“Really?” Daichi asked. “We could teach you then I guess.” 

Tsukishima really just wanted a break from playing water polo. He’d spent the whole week doing that. He did  _ not  _ want to be teaching the swim team how to play water polo. Or watching them.

“Ahahaha! Hinata, that’s not how you do egg beater! It’s like breaststroke, but alternating, see like this.” 

“Woah! Great King, you know how to play water polo?” 

“Yeah! Iwa-chan taught me.” This was going to be the second time Tsukishima heard this conversation, now with the other apparent idiot. 

“You know Iwaizumi-san?”

“Yeah, but I made a promise to never talk about him!” Tsukishima wasn’t sure if that was real. Did anyone really promise to not talk about their best friend? 

“I’m surprised you kept that promise Shittykawa.” Iwaizumi swam over, Noya in tow. 

“Mean Iwa-chan!” Iwaizumi just rolled his eyes and started helping Hinata. 

“Oikawa you should’ve–“ “Shush Ushiwaka.” 

Tsukishima was very glad that he wasn’t forced to help the swimmers. He was sitting on the edge of the pool. If he got a sunburn, then well… he got a sunburn. 

“Tsukki! C’mon get in the water.” Tsukishima looked up from his lap. Yamaguchi was waving from the middle of the pool. “Tsukki!” He sighed and got back in the pool. 

Yamaguchi was actually pretty good. For his first time playing at least. 

“Hey Tsukki, how can you see right now?” 

“I’m wearing contacts.”

“Why not –oof– I’ll get that!” Yamaguchi swam off to get the missed ball and came back. “Why not get like prescription goggles?” 

“Goggles aren’t allowed in water polo.”

“Why not?”

“Because you can get injured. If you get hit in the face with the goggles, your eyes could get hurt.”

“Oh,” Yamaguchi held the ball now. Right as he swam over, Bokuto started talking loud again. 

“Hey hey hey! What about a scrimmage? We can pick teams.” Tsukishima sighed. It seemed like everyone was in on it. Currently, Hinata and Nishinoya were on Bokuto’s team, sticking their tongues out at Tsukishima. 

“Freckles, come on this side!” Kuroo smirked at Tsukishima, as Yamaguchi swam over to them. The game started and Tsukishima watched with pleasure from the goal. The subs were sitting at the edge of the pool cheering. He laughed as Hinata was pushed down by Daichi. He was still holding the ball, if he let go then it’d be a foul and Hinata could pass. He was even worse than Lev. 

The game continued, Kuroo’s team beating Bokuto’s (Bokuo’s first choice was Akaashi, meaning they missed the chance to get Kageyama). Hinata actually managed to become open and with the ball. He threw the ball at Tsukishima. It wasn’t strong but Tsukishima had miscalculated the height. It hit him square in the nose. 

“Yeah! I made a point!!” Hinata cheered, throwing his hands up. 

“Hinata boke! That wasn’t a point!” Tsukishima’s grimace turned to an evil smirk because the King was right. It wasn’t the best save but it was still a save. 

“Hinata! Get back!” Daichi yelled. He knew what was up. Tsukishima threw the ball with all his strength. It whizzed past Hinata and skipped across the water right into the other team’s goal. 

*****

“Tsukki! That last goal was amazing!” After Tsukishima’s crazy shot, they had stopped playing. Yamaguchi was glad. Now they were playing Sharks and Minnows, where Bokuto, Suga, and Kuroo were sharks. It was getting late too. 

“Minnows minnows come on over!” Suga yelled. Yamaguchi didn’t hear anything Tsukishima said as he dived under. His strategy was to stay unnoticed as long as possible. That worked until he felt a hand around his ankle. He pulled up and Suga was smiling at him. He looked over to the far side of the pool to see Tsukishima on the wall. 

“Gotcha!” He grabbed Tsukishima. “You’re a shark now too.”

Tsukishima coughed, “I think I know how to play.” 

Yamaguchi spent dinner with Tsukishima, just like lunch. Bokuto was asking where Iwaizumi and Oikawa were. Yamaguchi decided not to say that he saw them kissing when he went to the bathroom. 

They all met in Akaashi and Asahi’s room that night. “What’re we doing this weekend? Oh maybe we could go into town.” The team was free on weekends, there were no competitions yet. 

“Uh,” Akaashi cleared his throat, “Bokuto-san invited us to go see their practice tournament this weekend.” Right, that was at lunchtime. 

It was a quick agreement and a call to Bokuto to see where the tournament would be. Hinata was off the walls about seeing an actual competition. He also wanted to see Kageyama drowned by some strong players. (It was because Kageyama nearly drowned him earlier.) Yamaguchi was just excited to have something to do. 

The next morning, Yamaguchi woke up early again. He wasn’t naturally an early waker but it became a habit. He sort of liked mornings. Hinata was already up, dressed in a sweater and pants. They went down together and met up with Sugawara and Oikawa. Oikawa had a sign that said “Go Iwa-chan!!” in big fat block letters. Tsukishima was sitting with his team, looking mildly annoyed and grumpy. 

They got in the bus together, the coaches agreeing to take them. The bus ride was noisy and Yamaguchi sat next to Tsukishima. He was wearing headphones. Yamaguchi was curious to see what kinds of music Tsukishima listened to but guessed it was rude to ask. He ended up falling asleep though. On Tsukishima’s shoulder. That was embarrassing. Yamaguchi wanted to bury himself alive. Tsukishima didn’t seem to mind though, as he got off the bus. Maybe they were friends. 

The water polo team went off to the bathrooms to get changed while the rest of them found places to sit. They didn’t bring chairs but there were bleachers at this pool. And apparently the team also had a pop-up tent to put stuff under. There were a lot of snacks. 

The water polo team came out and then got into the pool. They were the first game of many for the day. 

“Hey why’s Tsukishima wearing the number one cap? Is he captain?” 

“Nope,” Suga was watching as Sawamura shot the ball into the goal, “Daichi told me that the goalie cap is always number one. Bokuto and Kuroo are captains.” Sugawara and Sawamura were already on a first name basis? 

When the game actually started, Hinata was cheering for Bokuto. Screaming. He was really loud. Not as loud as Oikawa though, who shouted “Iwa-chan, go!” every five seconds. Yamaguchi just watched as the ball was passed and skipped around the pool. It was confusing. Tsukishima kept stopping the goals though, which was good. 

Ushijima!!” Tsukishima yelled before skidding the ball across the pool. Ushijima picked it up and passed it to Iwaizumi. “Go Iwa-chan!!” Oikawa squealed, causing Iwaizumi to glare at him. 

Their team had black caps, with orange strings. The other team wore teal and white. The game didn’t seem very long, but it was obvious that some players were tiring. Tsukishima never told Yamaguchi that they were a good team. He figured it out by looking at the score. They were five points ahead and the clock was ticking down for the other team. The pool was sectioned, so two games could go on at the same time. 

The game ended with a whistle. They had won. It was one of many games though, as Ushijima informed him. They had a twenty minute break, where Hinata and Kageyama competed on how many Goldfish they could fit in their mouth and Iwaizumi ignored Oikawa. 

“Tsukki, you were so cool!” Tsukishima shrugged. “I was thinking, why’d you join water polo?” 

Tsukishima looked at Yamaguchi, as if analyzing him. “My brother,” he said, just as they were called over for a team huddle. Before the second game, Lev brought someone over from the gate. 

“Yo!” A short boy, maybe their age, smiled. He was wearing a white tank top and brown shorts. 

“Guys, guys. This is my boyfriend Yaku!” 

Suga knew Yaku apparently and they sat together through the second game. Yaku was a lifeguard and teacher for a swim center where Suga’s siblings went. 

The team was wiped out in the fourth game. They’d placed third overall. By now, it was three in the afternoon and everyone was tired one way or another. The bus ride back was much quieter than the first one.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> alright that was longer than usual, i’m just spewing bs
> 
> also i had to look up a thing and water polo is considered the “roughest sport” lol, boys water polo has like a lot more throwing the ball super far i think, i’ve seen and it’s scary
> 
> the next chapter might start with yams btw


	6. Sunday Morning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> a bit if yamayachi friendship or crushes... short bc idk

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yeah i dunno what’s up, i have too many ideas and like i can’t do them all really? 
> 
> like currently there’s a vague idea for a bokuaka fic and also a pokemon idea... tho the pokemon idea wouldn’t have a plot, i was thinking like short stories of how they met their pokemon 
> 
> also this chapter starts w/ tsukki

The rest of the night was spent hanging out with the swim team. Tsukishima fell asleep on the bus ride back, sinking into his sweater. One day he would become one with the sweater. For dinner, he was sitting with Daichi, Suga, and Yamaguchi. Suga was way too excited, talking about how cool they were and all of Daichi’s goals. Tsukishima heard enough. He stood up, threw away his food tray, and went to his room. 

“I was talking to Akaashi and he’s super fast, y’know. But also he said he doesn’t even like swimming all that much. I want him to teach me how to do butterfly like that, it’s like a killer butterfly, leaves everyone behind.”

“Yeah well, he seems cool, you should try to impress him or something.”

“Oh yeah, Akaashi is  _ super  _ cool… and honestly I just want him to have more fun, he picked the sport, he should have fun.” 

When did his room become a hotspot for gossiping captains? He glanced over at Kageyama, sitting in the corner. Kageyama shrugged. Tsukishima sighed and plopped down onto his bed. Bokuto was basically fangirling over that swimmer Akaashi, while Kuroo threw in a note every now and then. It was stupid. Tsukishima wishes he had someone to talk to. About his problems and hobbies and dinosaurs. He wishes he could talk to Yamaguchi more, or listen to Yamaguchi ramble the way Kuroo did for Bokuto. Though, if all Yamaguchi talked about was some other guy, Tsukishima probably wouldn’t have as much fun. Wait, what? 

“Tsukkiii… we’re free tomorrow, wanna go check out the shops ‘round here?” Kuroo was looking at him, waving his hand at Tsukishima’s face to get attention. 

“No, not really.” Tsukishima swatted his hand away. 

*****

“Yamaguchiiiii wake up!!!” Out of all the days of the week, Sunday was Yamaguchi’s favorite. It’s the one day he doesn’t have to worry about morning practice or meets and the one day he can sleep normally. He can revert back to waking up at ten. Hinata, though, had other plans. The ginger was jumping around on the bed and probably breaking Yamaguchi’s bones. Maybe. 

Yamaguchi groaned and rolled out of bed. It was 7:30. “C’mon c’mon, we’re going into town!” Hinata was way too excited for this. They were just checking out shops but Hinata made it seem like they were going to an amusement park. Yamaguchi got dressed and ran to catch up with Hinata downstairs. 

During breakfast, Oikawa was talking about Iwaizumi, whatever promise he made now broken. Suga was laughing and Akaashi smiled. It was good. If only it wasn’t so early. 

They walked into town and the trip started with Hinata staring at everything. Tanaka and Noya were busying themselves, trying to find a game store. Asahi said they should buy a game for Kenma. That was nice of him. Yachi saw a cute dress she liked, so she and Kiyoko broke off from the group to look. Yamaguchi found himself with them in the store. It was a nice store, there were pretty dresses and casual suits. Yachi was grinning from ear to ear, looking at everything. 

“How about this one?” Kiyoko offered, going over to a floral print dress. 

“Oh it’s so cute! I wanna try it.” Yachi was usually shy and anxious, but around friends she blossomed into an adorable bubbly girl. She took the dress off the rack and ran to the dressing rooms in the back. Yamaguchi watched from the side of the store, playing with the berets and hair clips they had stocked there. 

Yachi came out only a few minutes later, smiling shyly. She was cute. 

“D-does it look good on me?” She was looking toward both Yamaguchi and Kiyoko. 

“It suits you.” Kiyoko smiled. Yachi turned to Yamaguchi with big doe eyes, expecting some feedback. It caught Yamaguchi off guard.

“U-uh yeah, it’s really pretty Yachi.” That was awkward. Maybe if he curled up into a ball and disappeared, they wouldn’t notice. “Oh,” he was still playing with the clips, “here… the sunflower one, it would fit… wouldn’t it?” Yamaguchi held up a big sunflower clip and tried to put it in Yachi’s hair. 

“Yeah! It does.” Yachi giggled and twirled. She looked into the mirror and smiled. “Thanks Yamaguchi!” 

“Why do you want to look in here?” Yamaguchi knew that voice. 

“‘Cause… I already look good, but I can look better!” There was a snarky laugh that must’ve been Kuroo’s. 

“So you want a suit.” The first, cool voice deadpanned. 

“Yeahhh Tsukki, c’mon maybe you can get a suit too. Then you’ll look even better when you dance with Yamaguchi!” Yamaguchi had never thought about Tsukishima wearing a suit. That was never a concern of his. Maybe it should be, because Yamaguchi just imagined it and  _ it looked good.  _

“Yamaguchi-kun, let’s go.” Kiyoko studied Yamaguchi while Yachi paid for her new dress and accessories. Yamaguchi just nodded. They passed Tsukishima on the way out. 

“Where’s everyone else?” Yachi held her bag close to her and glanced around the street. 

“They must’ve gone somewhere else.” Kiyoko looked around too. “Let’s go that way.” She pointed toward a store with a big glass window. Tanaka and Noya were clearly visible, both surrounding a demo gaming console. 

“I guess they found it.” Yamaguchi let out a dry laugh as they walked over. 

Tanaka and Nishinoya were at one station while Hinata and Kageyama were at another. Hinata saw them and paused the game, making Kageyama glare. “Hey guess what! The water polo team is here too! I guess we all have really similar ideas.” Yamaguchi could guess that much. 

“Hey dumbass, get back in the game.” 

“Oops sorry,” Hinata turned back to unpause the Mario Kart race. Asahi was watching Tanaka and Noya at the other station, occasionally letting out a gasp or squeak. Yamaguchi looked to see what they were doing. Splatoon. 

“Hey do you think Kenma would like a game like this?” 

“Do you even have the money for it?” Tsukishima was suddenly behind Yamaguchi. He thought they were at the other shop. 

“W-what’re you doing here?” Yamaguchi asked. 

“We’re in town, I can be wherever I like. And I came here to escape those dummies, but I guess I just met more.” Tsukishima responded, laughing at Noya as he got worked up. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> kinda short, hope you liked it  
> (also is the pokemon idea interesting to anyone? pls tell me)


	7. Dino Plushies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ♪~and i know that you’re in love with him, cause i saw ya dancing in the gym~♪  
> ♪~you both kicked off your shoes, and i dig those rhythmy blues!~♪

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> dino plushies, i got a goat plushie this weekend 
> 
> (also if it switches from past tense to present, it’s an accident, i tried to catch myself)

How did Tsukishima get here again? This morning, Bokuto came storming into their room with Lev and Tsukishima was dragged out. So that was how he got _into_ town, but now he was sitting in a diner with Kageyama, Hinata, and Yamaguchi. The diner was nice, homey, and a bit small. Tsukishima kept bumping his knees on the table. 

“Tsukki! What do you want to eat?” Yamaguchi beamed at him. Tsukishima looked at the menu, this place only seemed to have burgers and fries. Fast food, but fancier. “How about this?” Yamaguchi asked, pointing to a combo meal with a burger and fries. Tsukishima shrugged. 

“I bet I could’ve made _wayyy_ more goals than you Kageyama!” Hinata boasted and Tsukishima snorted. Yeah, right. Hinata almost drowned the other day, you never would’ve thought he was a swimmer. He couldn’t shoot goals if he couldn’t even get his head above water. 

“Boke, you _suck_ at water polo.” 

“Sooo? Then I bet you suck at swimming butterfly!” It was Yamaguchi’s turn to snicker, Tsukishima could assume that Hinata wasn’t good at butterfly either. 

Neither loud mouths noticed the laughs and neither noticed the other couple coming from behind. They were arguing too much. 

“Wow, Tobio-chan. Have you finally realized that Chibi-chan just isn’t cut out for your sport?” Ew, Oikawa. Tsukishima didn’t necessarily hate the guy, but his voice was too sweet, too mocking. 

Kageyama turned, still holding Hinata’s head awkwardly, and stared at Oikawa with big eyes. “He sucks _now,_ but he can get better,” he said. Hinata looked up at Kageyama now, his expression a mixture of confusion and annoyance. Maybe a little awe. 

“Wow… I never thought the king would say that about someone.” Tsukishima drawled. Yamaguchi elbowed him lightly. 

Suddenly, Iwaizumi appeared behind Oikawa. He didn’t look the most happy. “Shittykawa, why the hell did you run away?” Iwaizumi said, bonking Oikawa’s head. 

“Mean Iwa-chan! I was hungry! And my amazing senses brought me here! To Tobio-chan.” Oikawa sounded like a little whiny child. Iwaizumi sighed. 

“Fine, let’s eat here. But we’re leaving Kageyama-kun alone.” Oikawa pouted. Iwaizumi’s face however, softened as he dragged Oikawa to the furthest table. 

Their food came and Yamaguchi was eating most of the fries. Apparently getting a combo meal meant that Yamaguchi didn’t actually get his own food. “Do you want a bite?” Tsukishima asked, looking at his half eaten burger. Yamaguchi shook his head, but beamed at Tsukishima. 

The world seemed to fade a little. Yamaguchi was so bright and colorful, that everything seemed dull. Tsukishima forgot about the bickering boys across the table and just stared for a moment. Yamaguchi had freckles. Hundreds and thousands of them. This wasn’t a new discovery, but Tsukishima wanted to count them all. Did Yamaguchi have freckles everywhere, or only on his face? If only Tsukishima had paid more attention on that Friday. 

“Tsukki?” Tsukishima snapped out of whatever that was and glanced at Yamaguchi. He was smiling shyly as he said, “Are you done eating? We can leave now if you want.” Tsukishima looked down at his burger, then at the king and redhead. They were still arguing about something. 

“Sure, let’s go.” 

They headed out of the diner, unnoticed by their tablemates. Then, Yamaguchi asked Tsukishima where he wanted to go. Tsukishima didn’t really know, anywhere without idiots was fine. He shrugged, so Yamaguchi pulled him off toward some sort of card and paper shop. 

“Why are we here?” Tsukishima looked around the lavender smelling shop. It sold cards and colored tissue paper. There were baby plushies and multiple types of soap and bath bombs. It was the kind of store you’d see in a small place like this. 

Yamaguchi hummed a little and said, “I dunno, we can go to the bookstore next door later.” 

Yamaguchi ended up buying birthday cards. For his mom and people, he said. Tsukishima never knew that a few fancy folded sheets of paper could cost so much. He’d wandered around the shop, getting drawn to the small plushies. He picked one up. It was soft and cute, perfect for a baby. He looked at the selection of animals, the one he was holding was a goat, but there were bunnies and dragons, even a bright pink flamingo. 

“Do you want to buy one?” Yamaguchi asked, coming over to look as well. He startled Tsukishima, and Tsukishima automatically shook his head. “Oh! How ‘bout this one?” Yamaguchi pointed to a plushie that Tsukishima hadn’t seen. There were a few actually. It was a different build from the others, not a small body and head with dangly legs, that was ideal for babies to hug. The plushie was a dinosaur. It looked like a brachiosaurus, with a long huggable neck, but still small. Toddler-sized. 

“Uh… we–“ “You like dinosaurs, right? Oh look, there’s more, kids must really like dinosaur plushies.” Yamaguchi remembered? Tsukishima put down the little goat and moved to the basket of dinosaurs. Yamaguchi was right. There was the maybe-brachiosaurus, a triceratops, stegosauruses, T.rex, and even plesiosaurs. No velociraptors though, Tsukishima guessed that the skinny, made-for-running dino wasn’t great for small babies because its arms were so skinny and small. Or maybe not. Maybe they just sold out. 

“Let’s get one… no, two! Then you can have one and I can have one.” Tsukishima looked at Yamaguchi in surprise. Yamaguchi had just spent like twenty five dollars on cards and now he wants a plushie? Whatever. Maybe Tsukishima will pay this time. 

Yes, okay, Tsukishima did end up buying the plushies. He got a green brachiosaurus and Yamaguchi got orange triceratops. It was like eighteen dollars? Whatever. 

“I bet the lady thought it was for our little cousins or something.” Yamaguchi laughed, unwrapping the toy. The lady had insisted that she wrap both toys in brown paper. Tsukishima rolled his eyes, but he was happy. The little brachiosaurus would make a nice friend for his other dinosaurs at home. Even if most of the other ones were made out of plastics and clay. 

“Let’s go to the bookstore then.” Tsukishima suggested as they wandered down the street. Tsukishima wondered how expensive the both camps were, to get a mediocre hotel for two weeks, around a nice area, to rent a facility with two pools. Not really his concern, to be honest, as he walked into the bookstore. 

The two boys looked at books together. Tsukishima pointed out flaws in the first few pages of writing sometimes and Yamaguchi told him to write his own book. Maybe he would. Maybe it’d be about dinosaurs and plushies and bookstores. Tsukishima wasn’t sure how that was going to work. 

They ran into Akaashi, Suga, Daichi, and Ennoshita. Suga was busy explaining the plot of a book he read, Tsukishima could tell that Daichi couldn’t keep up. Akaashi was looking at the small game section of the store and Ennoshita was with him. 

“Oh hey, Tsukishima, Yamaguchi.” Ennoshita smiled. “We’ll probably have to head back soon.” Ennoshita was right, it was 4:30 and they had to go back, sooner rather than later. 

They walked, all together, going back to the hotel that they were staying in. Tsukishima didn’t get anything from the bookstore. Yamaguchi was holding both dinosaurs and the cards from earlier. 

*****

Yamaguchi handed Tsukishima back his dinosaur before heading down to dinner. Tsukishima didn’t follow him. In the eating area, Lev, Bokuto, and Kuroo waved him over. What? Yamaguchi went anyway. 

It wasn’t so bad. Kuroo didn’t ask any weird questions and Bokuto mostly asked about Akaashi. They all talked a lot, allowing Yamaguchi to stay mostly quiet. 

After dinner, he went back to his room. Hinata wasn’t back yet, so Yamaguchi turned on the TV. At the same time, there was a knock on the door. 

Yamaguchi opened the door to see Tsukishima. He had a little frown, but Yamaguchi learned that was his regular face. “Gym.” He stated, before leaving Yamaguchi to follow. Why did Tsukki want to go to the gym? 

Tsukishima opened the gym and turned on the lights. The lights flickered on, and the door creaked closed behind them. Tsukishima sighed, “Bokuto’s giving me a headache.” 

“Why?”

“He won’t stop talking about Akaashi-san.” Yamaguchi laughed a bit. He knew it was true, Bokuto’s vocabulary was limited to water polo words and now Akaashi. It seemed a little obsessive, but Akaashi talked about Bokuto a lot too. 

“So what do you wanna do?” Yamaguchi asked.

Tsukishima pulled out his phone. He looked at it for a moment, doing something, before a song started to play. “Dance with me?” he asked sweetly. 

Yamaguchi was shook. He supposed that he couldn’t be that annoying if Tsukishima spent most of the day with him. He spent most of the day with Tsukki. And now, Tsukishima is asking him to dance again. 

Tsukishima had one hand out, and Yamaguchi took it. Immediately, Tsukishima tried to spin Yamaguchi, and failed. Yamaguchi laughed and spun around on his own. He kicked off his shoes, surprising Tsukishima. Yamaguchi saw as Tsukishima followed him, taking off his shoes. 

“This is gross.” Tsukishima said, as he stood with his socks on the ground. 

“So?” Yamaguchi smirked, “You did it anyway.” He wasn’t really dancing. More just pretending to, moving his hands along. 

They danced for what felt like forever. Yamaguchi wasn’t even tired. He watched Tsukishima try to dance, the tall blond moved his feet uncertainly. Tsukki was so pretty. His hair was way shorter that Yamaguchi’s, and now it was blond and messy. Although… it was always blond. Tsukki’s eyes were golden like half moons. He was tall and lean and so, _so_ pretty. 

Tsukishima’s taste in music was good too. There was a lot of variation and apparently no love songs. There were blues though. It was good. Eventually, Tsukishima tired out. He stopped the music, put his shoes back on, and turned out the light. He went ahead of Yamaguchi, because Yamaguchi was stopped by Kuroo. 

Kuroo gave Yamaguchi a greasy smile. “So… Freckles.” Kuroo drawled, “You like him, don’t ya?” 

Yamaguchi froze. Like Tsukki? In what way? As a friend, yes, as someone more… maybe? Yamaguchi didn’t know. 

“I saw you guys, Tsukki actually looked _happy_ for once.” What.

“You saw?” Yamaguchi glanced back at the gym door, shut and locked. 

“Through the window,” Kuroo pointed, “Tell me Freckles, who would you say you liked before Tsukishima?” Yamaguchi looked at Kuroo wide eyed. 

“Um…” He started awkwardly, “Yachi? But I think she’s more smitten with Kiyoko now…” Kuroo nodded as if he understood. What was this even about? 

“Yachi’s the blonde one, right?” Yamaguchi nodded. Kuroo hummed, “Mmmm well then Freckles, I think you have a thing for blondes.” 

Yamaguchi turned red. Kuroo probably wasn’t wrong. “U-uh I,” Yamaguchi stuttered. Kuroo nodded again and continued to speak. 

“And I think you’re absolutely _smitten_ with a certain blond player of mine.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yayyy kuroo is weird (also he’s back)
> 
> mmmm i have a road trip fic idea, should it be daisuga or bokuaka, pls tell in comments (also pokemon au thing might be coming up)


	8. Monopoly of Freckles

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> wow i wrote this entirely randomly, have fun!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i think the swim coach would be takeda and the water polo coaches would be ukai and washijo but it doesn’t matter

Coach was out sick. With seafood poisoning, they told him not the eat oysters and he did anyway. Tsukishima didn’t care. It was irresponsible to get sick in the middle of a training camp, _especially_ if you were the coach. _Especially_ if it was avoidable. But here he was, with his eight other teammates, discussing what to do. 

“I guess we just don’t have practice then?” Bokuto asked no one in particular.

Lev groaned. “Can’t we just run our own practice? I wanna shoot some goalssss.” He glanced at Daichi, who nodded thoughtfully. “I guess we could… we can do passing on land and if they let us use the pool, then we know some drills.” Lev nodded enthusiastically at Daichi’s practice proposal. 

Kuroo sighed and rubbed his temples. “That’s _if_ they let us use the pool. And uh who’s they? The people who own this place? Because I haven’t seen them since day one.” If they had no practice, then maybe Tsukishima could just relax. It was… seven in the morning? He could’ve slept at least another two hours. 

“Hey hey he–“ “What’re all of you sitting around for? C’mon you guys, get changed for practice and go to the indoor pool.” Bokuto was cut off by a man’s voice. Tsukishima recognized as the swim coach. The man himself wasn’t threatening in any way at all, not even his voice was scary. He seemed nice, the type of coach to give easy sets and let you miss practice. Maybe that was a facade though, and he was actually a bit harsher than Tsukishima thought (no that wasn’t it, the man just had strict schedules and _tried_ to look intimidating). 

Tsukishima wasn’t sure what he was expecting. Of course, they were joining the swim practice so why wouldn’t Yamaguchi be here? It was _his_ sport. 

“Oh hey Tsukki! I heard you were joining us today.” 

“That’s right!! We water polo players are gonna show you how great we are!” Bokuto yelled over whatever Tsukishima was about to say. Not that he had much to say anyway. He was more interested in Yamaguchi’s chest and shoulders. Yamaguchi _did_ have freckles on his shoulders. 

Hinata snorted and said, “Yeah, right, I bet Kageyama can’t even swim a hundred.” He glared at Kageyama and stuck his tongue out. This, of course, infuriated Kageyama, but before he could kill Hinata, the coach called them to the pool.

Tsukishima still wanted to sleep in. The false hope of sleeping made him tired. There were nineteen people and five lanes, so it wasn’t crowded. Still, Tsukishima would not have picked a lane with Oikawa, Daichi, and Ennoshita (he would’ve picked Yamaguchi’s lane). Tsukishima, however, had a new goal. A mission. Count all of Yamaguchi’s freckles from where he was, without staring or looking weird. This mission was basically impossible during practice because they were always moving. But so far, being in the lane next to Yamaguchi, he’d counted 163 freckles. 

When practice started, Tsukishima suddenly realized why Yamaguchi said this was for “swimmers with potential”. They were all so _fast._ It wasn’t like Tsukishima was slow either, because he could probably make the swim team if he wanted. He knew all four strokes and could dive and turn, he was average speed. But even Daichi (with his crazy thighs) couldn’t keep up with Oikawa. The only people who could be considered the same level of strength were Kageyama and Ushijima. Ushijima even beat Oikawa when they swam freestyle.

“Six fifties butterfly!” The coach shouted. “Ones… ready go!” Oikawa shot off the wall. “Twos, ready go!” Daichi went under. “Threes… ready go!” His turn. He pushed off the wall and started to swim. He was pretty sure that the coach didn’t have to call out people and could just leave the swimmers to themselves,but then he saw Lev. It was out of the corner of his eye, Lev was a good ways away and Tsukishima was nearsighted. Lev looked like a drowning fish. Ironic. He was gasping and flailing his arms around, but he wasn’t getting anywhere. He was way behind the other swimmers. Frankly, Tsukishima didn’t like butterfly or Lev. Both took too much energy out of him. But Lev was still a teammate and Tsukishima felt a little sorry for him. 

“HEY! How are you so fast Kageyama?!” 

“Huh??” Tsukishima watched as Kageyama grabbed Hinata’s head and shook it around. “I’m just not slow, boke.” Tsukishima snorted. That was some dumbass logic. 

“Well Tobio-chan, you could’ve been a swimmer… but I don’t want to be like Ushijima, so I won’t ask you to.” Oikawa skipped over to the snack table and grabbed a packet of Goldfish. They were on the swim team’s schedule, so they had breaks when Tsukishima thought they should practice and practiced when Tsukishima thought they should eat. 

Speaking of snacks, Yamaguchi was talking to Ennoshita and Daichi. And seeing that there were no sports drinks, Bokuto was competing with Kuroo on how many granola bars they could eat. ...201 freckles so far. “Heyyyy Tsukkiii, you need to eat some more!” Ew. Kuroo shoved three granolas in his face. He grimaced. 

“No thanks, I’m good.” (213 freckles now) Kuroo laughed, “C’mon eat oneeee.” Tsukishima ignored him and wandered to the far side of the table. 

On that side, Ushijima sat eating an apple. He looked bored. “Tsukishima-kun, do you like Yamaguchi-kun?” Was he that obvious? Did he like Yamaguchi? Of course he did, he was counting Yamaguchi’s freckles, that wasn’t something you did for someone you weren’t interested in. “I noticed you keep looking at him, are you afraid to talk to him?” 

“No.” Tsukishima said coldly, he already had Kuroo on his case. He didn’t need Ushijima either. 

“You aren’t afraid to talk to him? Then perhaps you need help courting him? Tendou says I am a good boyfriend, I can help.” Lord, no. That’s what Ushijima thought? Tsukishima really needed to stop then, he was too obvious. “Are you already dating Yamaguchi-kun?” 

“No,” Tsukishima snapped. But maybe he would be… someday.

*****

Yamaguchi stayed up late thinking about what Kuroo said. That couldn’t be true, right? Tsukishima always looked like that. And he never looked particularly happy anyway. Hinata had crashed last night after running around town. Yamaguchi regretted staying up so late. It probably didn’t matter, Tsukishima wouldn’t like him back. He didn’t _actually_ like Yamaguchi that way… did he? That seemed impossible. 

Practice wasn’t easier because there were more people here. Coach made it clear. The water polo players were struggling, but Yamaguchi was distracted. Now, during break, Tsukishima kept looking at him. Glancing at him, staring at his back. Was there something on his butt? Did Tanaka and Nishinoya connect the freckles on his back to draw a dick again? (actually that would never happen again, because Suga had karate chopped them to space, Asahi gave them the ‘look’, and Kiyoko actually got angry) Yamaguchi pretended not to notice it. He watched Bokuto shove granola down his throat and almost choke on it. ...Hopefully he wouldn’t throw up later. Tsukki was on the other end of the snack table, but he wasn’t taking anything. Yamaguchi wasn’t sure if he should go talk, especially not after what Kuroo said. It echoed in his brain, smitten… Yamaguchi wasn’t smitten with Tsukki. He’d hardly had time to talk to Tsukki today, everything was rushed along. Although… if he did have time, he would definitely talk to Tsukishima. 

“Hey Yachi… do I have something on my back?”

“Huh? Oh uh no, why?” Oh. So then why was Tsukishima watching him so closely? 

“No reason.” Yamaguchi shrugged and got ready to get back in the pool. 

Practice and lunch were as normal as they could be, with Yamaguchi ignoring Tsukishima’s stares. Actually Yamaguchi was ignoring Tsukishima entirely. He didn’t want to become more attached and fall in love and then have Tsukki leave by the end of the week. Wait… fall in love? Whatever. 

“Yamaguchi! Come eat with me and Daichi!” Suga grinned and pulled Yamaguchi to one of the tables. “So what’re we doing this afternoon?” 

“We have a choice? I thought we just had practice?” 

“Nah,” Suga waved his hand, “Coach said we could do whatever we wanted. Wanna try some more water polo with me and Daichi?” 

“Um sure?” Yamaguchi shrugged awkwardly. 

So that afternoon, Yamaguchi joined Hinata, Kageyama, Ushijima, and some others to play in the pool. Ushijima was surprisingly helpful with technique. Tsukishima was there too, although he didn’t look like he wanted to be. He was currently ‘defending’ Hinata. A better word for it would be drowning. 

“Stupidshima, let me gooo!” Hinata screeched. He didn’t look like he was in danger, but he was still being held down by Tsukishima. 

“Tsukishima, enough.” Daichi called, “Hinata, try to keep your hips up more.” Tsukishima let go and laughed as Hinata struggled. He seemed to have stopped looking at Yamaguchi all the time. Yamaguchi was thankful, but he still wanted to know why Tsukki was looking… 

That night, Hinata found Monopoly and invited Bokuto over to play. Daichi, Suga, and Kuroo came too. Hinata picked the dog, Kuroo was the cat, Daichi picked the man on a horse, and Suga grabbed the boot. 

“Suga… why do you want to be a boot?”

“Boots are nice! And why would you ever want to be a cowboy?” 

“It’s not a cowboy… it’s a man on a horse.”

“It’s a cowboy, you can’t argue.” 

“Oho, this should be fun…” Tsukishima wandered through the door. He sat on Yamaguchi’s bed. “You’ll be at each other’s throats in minutes.” 

“Heyyy Tsukki, why don’t you join us then?” Kuroo looked up, “Yamaguchi too, we need more people.” 

“I think I’ll pass. I don’t want to ruin any relationships I have and you always fuck up the economy.” Yamaguchi snickered and Kuroo gave him a disappointed look. 

Tsukishima was right, Bokuto was complaining to Kuroo only ten turns into the game. “Aw mannn, I wanted that Boardwalk.” 

“Too bad, I got it first.” 

“Ughhhhh.” 

Daichi turned out to be a good diffuser to the arguments, but he was completely useless when Suga started going apeshit over a railroad. Yamaguchi found all this extremely entertaining.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> woop woop, random words! (i was sorta tired ok)


	9. Couple Goals (haha what a title for this train wreck)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> hm did y’all ever think bout how tsukki is a tall french fry and when yamaguchi blushes, coupled with his freckles and greenish hair, he looks like a strawberry?
> 
> in short, they look like each other’s favorite food

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i’d like to say, i have no actual schedule and i don’t read over this at all when i post 
> 
> i just vomit badly written words and go through to check spacing

Another day of endless swimming and counting freckles was tiring. Tsukishima was much more discreet about watching Yamaguchi now, especially since Ushijima, of all people, had noticed. Kuroo probably knew too, he kept smirking at like Tsukishima. At this point, Tsukishima had counted a total of 1,273 freckles. He’d also noticed that Yamaguchi seemed close to Sugawara and Yachi… and that maybe, just  _ maybe _ , Yamaguchi was avoiding him? 

“Tsukishima, would you like to stay in my room tonight?” 

That was a strange request, coming from Ushijima no less. It sounded weird. …but hey, Tsukishima wouldn’t have to stay with Kageyama then. “Okay.” Ushijima nodded and led Tsukishima to his room. Iwaizumi and Lev were sitting and conversing lightly. Ah… the dating ones. This room was filled with boys with boyfriends. Wonderful. 

“Oh, Tsukishima! So you are staying here tonight. I’ll stay with Kageyama then.” Iwazumi waved, picked up a pillow and started to leave. 

“It’s okay, I don’t want to be imposing–“ “No, no, it’s fine. We don’t have any other beds here and I bet you don’t want to share a bed with any of us.” Tsukishima’s face must’ve been displeased because Iwazumi scoffed. “I’ll just go, Kageyama isn’t that bad.” 

Iwazumi left the room and Ushijima sat on a bed. Lev was sitting on the coach bed, which was too short for his long legs. He probably got that bed because he was the youngest. 

“Do you like Yamaguchi-kun?” Why? Why were they talking about this again? Tsukishima  _ didn’t  _ like Yamaguchi that way. Definitely not. 

“Oh yeah! Yamaguchi is great! He’s super nice and kind and he helped me with my swimming! Did you know that he plays Smash Bros Ultimate with Kuroo and Kenma-san?” 

“Lev, I was asking Tsukishima, but thank you for your contribution.” 

Tsukishima glared at Ushijima and muttered, “He’s tolerable.” 

Ushijima seemed to think about it for a while before asking, “Would you want him to be your boyfriend?” Tsukishima really wished that Lev wasn’t here. Actually, Tsukishima wished that he wasn’t here at all, talking about relationships and  _ Yamaguchi,  _ with  _ Ushijima  _ and Lev. What had he ever done in life to deserve this? 

“He’s kinda pink-looking… Tsukki, do you actually like Yamaguchi?!” Tsukishima restrained himself from slapping Lev for saying that. 

“I-I guess it would be nice…” Tsukishima didn’t particularly like to admit his feelings but he would. It was worse to hide them sometimes. 

After that, Tsukishima might’ve blacked out. Listening to Lev talk about Yaku and getting ‘dating advice’ from Ushijima was more frustrating than he thought. He didn’t even ask for it. How could they even have boyfriends? Ushijima was blunt and literal and Lev was  _ so  _ hyper sometimes (although you could boil it down to enthusiasm). Ushijima wasn’t even good at identifying others feelings (or even his own) most of the time. 

“Hey hey, coach can we play water polo today???” Bokuto bugged the coach into letting them play. He was pretty convincing, saying that the swimmers would still be worked extremely hard. Kuroo helped Lev put in the goals, this was more work than it was worth. Tsukishima groaned and immediately started searching for Yamaguchi’s back. It had become a habit now, to search for Yamaguchi and count every freckle. It was… a bit worrying. Yamaguchi was nowhere to be found, so Tsukishima just submitted to getting into the pool. Hinata was at the far end already, fighting Kageyama for the ball. 

Tsukishima forgot to look for Yamaguchi as soon as the game started. The teams were insanely unfair and Tsukishima was living for it. It was the water polo team, minus Iwaizumi and Lev, against the swim team (plus Iwaizumi and Lev). Ennoshita was playing goalie today, so Tsukishima was able to shoot more. Tsukishima could see that Hinata was (somehow) unguarded and fumbling with the ball. In a few short strokes, he was by Hinata and pressing down. Hinata spluttered and shouted something that sounded like “Unfair!” Still, Hinata was stubborn and refused to let go. Tsukishima easily swatted the ball away, releasing Hinata. 

Hinata tried to get back on Tsukishima, but he was already gone. Halfway across the pool, passing the ball to Kageyama. Kageyama had been ‘attacked’ by Oikawa, the swimmer pressing down to try and defend him. Kageyama still managed to pass the ball back around to Tsukishima. 

“Shoot!” Kageyama yelled.

Tsukishima knew that. He knew he was in the perfect position to shoot the ball. Aim for the corners. “Aim for the little crows” as his coach said (their goals had black crows in the corners, the school mascot). Tsukishima floundered in place, half waiting for someone to come and stop him. No one tried. 

Yamaguchi grimaced at him, bracing for his shot. When had Yamaguchi become their other goalie? “Shoot Tsukki,” he taunted. Or it felt like a taunt. Tsukishima wound up his arm, and threw the ball at the left crow. Yamaguchi was there in an instant, jumping just a little too high. Tsukishima wondered if he was able to push off the bottom. The ball hit Yamaguchi’s face, his perfect face, and Tsukishima froze. Tsukishima’s feet hit the ground and the ball bounced off and hit the water. 

*****

It hurt. It wasn’t intentional, Yamaguchi knew that. But, Tsukki had a strong arm and it hurt. Maybe it was punishment for trying to avoid Tsukishima. He wanted to be the goalie so that he wouldn’t run into Tsukki before, he assumed Tsukki would be the goalie too. His senses were too slow in realizing that Ennoshita was playing that position. 

“You okay? Yamaguchi?” 

“Ah… yeah, just shocked.” Yamaguchi was pulled out early to check up his face. Which was fine, except for a small bruise on his cheek. Yamaguchi watched the other boys fight for points and dash back and forth. He wasn’t really thinking, just watching as Tsukki shot another goal on Oikawa (who had given up hounding Kageyama). The aftershock was a lot. 

Lunch and dinner were spent with Suga and Daichi. Yamaguchi knew that Tsukishima would get dragged away by Bokuto or Kuroo, so chances of seeing him here were low. 

“I don’t think water polo is as nonviolent as you think, Daichi.” Suga chided lightly. 

“It’s not that bad, Yamaguchi just got unlucky.” 

“Yeah and he wouldn’t have got hit if it were swim.”

“Well obviously, sorry Yamaguchi, by the way.” 

Yamaguchi just sat and watched as Daichi and Suga bantered more, the topic shifting to a movie or book of interest. He could tell that they were just joking and having fun about it all. 

The next day (Thursday), things returned to normal. Sort of. The other coach was back and they went back to regular practice. Only, Yamaguchi still ignored Tsukishima and Tsukishima kept coming up to him. Yamaguchi pretended not to notice that he was possibly ruining his friendship right then and there. His, uh, one chance at a romance? 

During lunch, Kuroo approached him. “Freckles, you know Tsukki feels bad, right? Yes, Yamaguchi knew. He was so painfully aware. He just nodded. “You have to let him say sorry, or he’ll keep moping.” Tsukki was moping? It didn’t look like it. 

“Just tell him I accept the apology then.” Yamaguchi grumbled, now picking at his rice. 

Kuroo let out a big sigh. “That’s not how it works… you know what Freckles, meet me by the gym tonight.” 

Yamaguchi looked up at Kuroo, brows knitting in confusion. Why? Whatever, Yamaguchi nodded and moved off to where Hinata was. 

He spent the rest of the afternoon wondering about it. He even hit his head doing backstroke. 

“You good?” Oikawa asked. Out of everyone, Oikawa was the true Backstroke King. He’d kindly taken Yamaguchi as his ‘pupil’. 

“Yeah,” Yamaguchi said, before leaving for another set. This time it was butterfly, no chance of slamming into the wall. 

Yamaguchi’s mind usually wandered in practice. He would think about anything. What he would have for dinner, if his math homework was done, what he could do for the weekend. But most recently, it was Tsukishima. Tsukki, Tsukki, Tsukki. And whatever Kuroo had to talk about. 

Yamaguchi found out soon enough. After dinner, he went to Kuroo, which earned him some funny looks. They weren’t usually seen together. 

Kuroo brought him to the back of the gym again and firmly set his hand on Yamaguchi’s shoulder. 

“What do you think you’re doing?” Kuroo asked. “About– with Tsukishima?” 

Yamaguchi just stood, staring at Kuroo. He was guilty. Caught red handed in the ‘I-care-but-I-can’t’ game. Why couldn’t he? Why couldn’t he care about Tsukki? Because after this, they’d go back to their schools and never see each other again. 

Kuroo’s face contorted as he listened to Yamaguchi’s bad excuse. “You. Are a coward.” He declared. Yamaguchi couldn’t deny it, and he was used to being called a coward. 

“But isn’t two weeks too short to build a meaningful relationship?” Yamaguchi tried to salvage any courage he had. Kuroo had to see from his side, he was a coward too, Kenma had to yell “I love you” at him five times to believe it. 

“Freckles, have you  _ even  _ heard about camp kid love stories?” Kuroo said exasperated. 

“B-but those are just stories, they aren’t real–“ “They most certainly are.” Kuroo cut Yamaguchi off. Then he smiled his big scary smile, meaning he had a plan. 

“Even Kenma says you would be a good couple.” 

“Camp kid love stories usually involve some kind of stupid game though…”

“Precisely,” the smile on Kuroo’s face turned to more of a smirk, “We’re campers, and we are definitely playing a stupid game tomorrow.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so my mom said romance novels usually end with the boyfriend and girlfriend (boy bc it gay) getting together and dating... so that’s gonna be the next chapter and then imma start new fics


	10. Truth or Dare

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ugh

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i told my self to finish this before i moved on to other ideas so uh this is half baked and short

Tsukishima felt a lot of guilt. And usually, he didn’t feel guilt like this. He didn’t mind hitting Lev or Bokuto or Kuroo, because he knew they could take it. He didn’t think that Yamaguchi  _ couldn’t  _ take it… but still. For every one of Yamaguchi’s freckles that he counted (2,076), he felt a sliver of guilt. So that was a lot. 

Yamaguchi was avoiding him. It was hard to tell earlier, but now Tsukishima was sure. The way Yamaguchi didn’t quite look at him when they talked in groups. The way Tsukishima couldn’t find him to talk alone and apologize. Today was Friday, after today, Tsukishima wouldn’t have the chance. They were going back to school Saturday morning and Tsukishima didn’t have Yamaguchi’s phone number. He really should’ve asked for it. 

“Tsukkiiii! Since it’s the last day of camp, come over to me and Bokuto’s room!” 

“Ew no.” Tsukishima sidestepped Kuroo as he barreled forward. 

“Pweaseee. Tadashi-kun will be there.” Tsukishima froze for just a second. Then he moved to the furthest table, where Ennoshita sat with Tanaka and Noya. Tsukishima would take those knuckleheads over Kuroo for now. 

What right did Kuroo have to use Yamaguchi’s first name? Even his teammates didn’t call Yamaguchi by his given name and if any of Tsukishima’s teammates used  _ his  _ given name, he’d slaughter them. Were they that close? Just because Yamaguchi went to play video games with Kenma? 

Tsukishima ended up in that room anyway. Technically, they were all staying in a hotel-facility-thing, but this room looked like a messy bedroom. Kuroo and Bokuto really settled in. Weren’t they packing? (Tsukishima wouldn’t be surprised if the answer was no) He was surprised however, by the rest of everyone in the room. 

“Welcome!” Kuroo said, flourishing his arms, “To our humble abode.” There were some sniggers from behind him and Bokuto picked up at the end. “We were waiting for ya!” 

Tsukishima looked around the room. He picked a spot next to Ushijima and glared across at Kageyama. Kageyama just glared back, sitting next to Hinata, who seemed way too excited for this. “What are we doing?” Kageyama asked. 

“Glad ya asked!” Bokuto grinned and pulled out a bottle. “Truth or Dare… orrrrrrr Spin the Bottle.” No one missed the very obvious glance at Akaashi. 

It was put up to a vote. Tanaka and Noya were literally foaming at the chance to kiss Kiyoko, so the girls said they wouldn’t play. It was pretty even actually, a tie. People like Suga, Oikawa, and Bokuto voted for Spin the Bottle. Akaashi, Ennoshita, and Hinata voted for Truth or Dare, until it was nine against nine. 

“Who didn’t vote?” Daichi asked. 

“Tsukishima groaned and most of the room turned to him. “Truth or Dare… or whatever.” 

“Awww I thought you were on our side…” Noya drooped. Kuroo narrowed his eyes and smiled. The game started and Tsukishima was really getting a headache. The dares were funny things, like “lick the person to your left’s foot”, or “do your best to imitate a Californian accent, in English” (were there any other languages the Californian accent could be applied to?). The truths were your usual “who do you like?” (“Kiyoko-san!”) and “what’s the stupidest thing you’ve done before?” Nishinoya got that one. Tsukishima did not need to know that Noya threw his lizard away after it shed because he thought it had  _ died.  _ Besides most things Nishinoya did were stupid. 

“Tsukki!” Kuroo beamed as though he hadn’t just tasted Daichi’s sock. “Truth or Dare?” That was when Tsukishima realized that he was cornered. He’d stayed away from getting asked by being quiet and in the corner. 

“Dare?” Tsukishima would rather not spill his most embarrassing moment of  _ anything.  _

“Wonderful…” Kuroo played with his fingers and gave him a madman-like smile. “Kiss Tadashi then.” 

Yamaguchi seemed equally, if not more shocked about it. He stared at Kuroo with big, betrayed eyes. Tsukishima moved across the room to be next to Yamaguchi. 

“Does he usually call you that?” Tsukishima asked quietly, getting closer to Yamaguchi’s face. 

“No,” Yamaguchi whispered. 

“Can I then?” Tsukishima asked, before closing the space between them. He wasn’t sure what drove him to do it. It was just a stupid dare, it probably wouldn’t mean anything. Kuroo was just messing with his feelings. 

Yamaguchi was a good kisser. It made Tsukishima wonder if he’d done it before, it was soft and sweet and nice. Eventually, good things had to end. They broke apart and Yamaguchi looked up at him with sparkling eyes. 

The noise came back gradually, just a minute ago it felt like Tsukishima’s ears were filled with cotton. “Wooo Tsukishima’s a smooth talker!” Tanaka yelled. Kuroo was clapping like it was some celebration. 

*****

That had just happened. 

Yamaguchi was shocked. He was a million things all at once and nothing at all. He looked up at Tsukki in confusion. Then his head swiveled to look at Kuroo. Kuroo was smiling his greasy smile as he reminded, “Tsukki, ask someone.” 

If it were Yamaguchi in the situation, he would’ve asked Tsukki if he was real. Well… of course he was real, but if his  _ feelings  _ were real, legitimate. If it were Yamaguchi, he would’ve never had the guts to do that. 

“Hinata, swear like a sailor for a minute.” 

Hinata started saying things that Yamaguchi had never heard come from Hinata’s mouth. Things like “shit” and “crap”. Then Tsukishima turned to Yamaguchi. He gave a half smile. Yamaguchi looked down, too awkwardly to meet his gaze. 

“Sorry about Wednesday.” 

“O-oh no! I’m fine, it’s ok.” Yamaguchi comforted quickly, still being quiet. “Was it real?”

Tsukishima looked confused for a second. “Of course it was real. I like you.” Oh. Oh Tsukki liked him. Why? “I want to dance with you again.” 

“I’m a terrible dancer.” 

“I think you dance swimmingly.” 

That caused Yamaguchi to double over laughing. “Tha-that’s so cheesy Tsukki!” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this story was a experiment... sorta, to see if i could write longer stories and other relationships (bc i have done mostly tsukkiyama one shots) and also a kiss (bc i’d never write smut)

**Author's Note:**

> ok! hope you liked it
> 
> i have more, i wrote it on paper first then google docs, then i have to transfer it here... kinda need a better process
> 
> um yea idk if the vocab at the top was helpful


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